Thursday, September 4, 2008

First game review night success

Well, last night was the first Wednesday of the month, which means it was Game Review Night. Last month, nobody took me up on the offer to review a game, so I was thinking maybe the Game Review Night wasn't such a great idea, but last night was a different story.

Luis brought some of his game records to get a review. We chose one of his KGS games that he had lost. I think the best games to get reviewed by stronger players are the ones where you lost, especially if you're not sure why you lost the game. In this case, Luis had black with a 2-stone handicap, played a fine opening, and made some mistakes that his opponent was able to capitalize on to come from behind and win the game.

Now, having played a 9-stone handicap mysely against William last night, I know that when you give a handicap you have to hold out for that moment when you come from behind and win the game. Let's face it, you start out behind. How else could you win the game!

Anyway, Don and Jackie both seemed very interested in the review. I think this game review thing could work out after all. Two things would have helped it to go a little more smoothly:

Bring the game in SGF format

Provide the game in advance

Having the game in SGF format will be very helpful, because it will be easy to go forwards and backwards through the game record. Having it on paper is better than nothing, but it takes longer to review. I always have my laptop when I come to the club, so you can email the game record to me ahead of time and I can pull it up on my computer. Or, you can bring it on a thumb drive, floppy disk, or CD, and we'll figure out how to pull it up.

Sending the game to me in advance is even better because I can take the time to review it ahead of time and identify the critical parts of the game that are the most important to talk about.

Remember, you can always get game record sheets from Joe at the club. If you need advice on how to turn your game record sheets into SGF files, just let me know.

All in all, I think it was a good exercise, and we can look forward to more game reviews in the future. Remember, the first Wednesday of the month is Game Review Night at the Yu Go Club!

As Alf noted, i was indeed interested in the game he was replaying and discussing, although i was simultaneously involved with others in another interesting exercise about capturing races.

From Alf's discussion, perhaps the most useful thing i picked up was how to make an invasion at a 3rd row point, contacting a 4th row stone, in order to reduce the area in a growing moyo (hmm, did i spell moyo right?). It was one of those moves Luis coulda/shoulda made. :) Anyhow, I am wondering if i can somehow capture one of my games in the upcoming Cotsen tournament, to bring next month. -- Don